


promises that are the truth

by angstlairde



Series: in a kinder galaxy [7]
Category: Star Wars: Battlefront (Video Games)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bby!zay is kidnapped so if that bothers u be warned, Blood and Violence, Concussions, F/M, Gen, Guavian Death Gang - Freeform, I MUST EMPHASIZE THE ENDING IS MOSTLY HAPPY, Kidnapping, Minor Injuries, Sad with a Happy Ending, Serious Injuries, She real little tho, Shes 3, Worry, except we all know what happens to iden and del so maybe the ending isnt "happy"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 17:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14549238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstlairde/pseuds/angstlairde
Summary: Prompt: keeping a promise.....Iden struggled to her feet, ignoring the burning ashes scorching her skin and stumbled over to him.Not Del, not him too.First Zay was taken, now Del was unconscious and not waking up - no, please.





	promises that are the truth

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so *cracks knuckles* id had this idea for a while and had an excuse to write it for school and i have only just now got around to posting it
> 
> Be warned - its not like super happy at all so just... ya know

“NO,  _ WAIT!” _ Iden screamed as Del ran towards the ship taking off - and towards the containers of fuel rigged to explode. But by the time he registered her words, it was too late, and the barrels exploded. The blast sent Iden flying back, and slammed her into the ground, and a few meters away from her, lay Del, unconscious in the wreckage. 

_ No! _

Iden struggled to her feet, ignoring the burning ashes scorching her skin and stumbled over to him.

_ Not Del, not him too. _

First Zay was taken, now Del was unconscious and not waking up -  _ no, please. _

Iden didn’t know how long she stayed kneeled by his side, but it must have been a long time, because when she was hauled up, her feet were asleep. She barely noticed the emergency teams swarming the area, until someone tries to pull her away from Del. 

“No! I’m not leaving him,” she argued, struggling against hands gripping her, and landing a solid kick to someone’s knee. They grunted in pain, and then Shriv appeared in her peripheral.

“Hey, Iden, calm down. Easy, tell me what happened,” he said, taking hold of her arms lightly.

So she did. Iden told him how Zay was kidnapped, but she and Del couldn’t stop them from taking her, and when he did, the fuel exploded, and now he was unconscious, and she had to find Zay, and Del had to wake up. She didn’t even realize they were at the Corvus’ medbay, until Shriv set her on a bed.

“Look, Iden, you gotten stay here where it’s safe,” he told her gently, and Iden jerked out of his grip. 

“Where’s Del?” she demanded, struggling to stand.

“Easy,” Shriv said again. “He’s in the room over.”

Iden swallowed hard as the adrenaline faded from her system, and everything suddenly ached.

“I want to see him,” Iden said, hating how hoarse she sounded - but then, it was probably from the smoke. Shriv nodded, laid his hand on her shoulder.

“You can. But first you need to rest.”

Iden jerked away again, and shook her head, glaring as a doctor and two droids entered the room.

“No. I can rest after I’ve seen him.”

“Iden…” Shriv said, a warning in his voice as he backed away, and the droids came closer. “Rest.”

She struggled against the sedative, but it did no good. She drifted off against her will, but as much as she hated to admit it, it felt nice.

 

….

 

When Iden woke, the lights were dimmed, and the sky outside her window was dark. Shriv was dozing in the chair to the left of her bed, snoring lightly.  _ Del _ . Shriv wouldn’t leave Del if he wasn’t going to be okay. She needed to see him.

Her limbs were still heavy with sleep, fatigue, and pain, and she struggled to sit up on her own. Her shuffling around woke Shriv, and he jerked away, blinking rapidly.

“Iden,” he said, leaning forward to help.

“Gotta get to Del,” she said, voice rough, and this time, Shriv didn’t argue. He helped her sit up, then helped her to her feet.

“This place holds a lot of memories for me,” he told her with a smirk playing with the corners of his mouth. “Some good, some -” he paused, thinking about it then said, “no, no all bad.”

Which was mostly true, Iden thought, exhaling a breath that could pass as a laugh. They found out Iden was pregnant on Lothal, and she gave birth of Coruscant. So Shriv’s words were true. The only reason they came to the medical on the Corvus was because they were either injured or sick. 

“Yeah, well. Here’s another bad memory,” Iden said sardonically, and keyed in the code to Del’s room. 

Despite preparing herself mentally for the worst, and despite having seen him nearly dead before, it was still a shock to the system to see him hooked up to machines, pale, bruised, and bandaged. Iden clenched her jaw, and pressed forward, sitting down at the foot of his bed. She swallowed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked flatly.

“Several broken ribs, a punctured lung, all three degrees of burns all over him, a concussion, fractured humerus, and broken wrist, both on the right arm,” Shriv listed grimly. The surge of anger that washed over her shocked her in its strength and nearly made her choke. Whoever did this - pirates, bounty hunters, she knew who did this - was going to pay for Zay, and Del. No one hurt her family and lived. No one.

“He’ll be okay.” Shriv’s voice made her startle. She wasn’t sure whether Shriv was trying to convince her, or himself.

“He has to be. And I have to find Zay.”

He tilted his head at her, and to her surprise, didn’t argue.

“In the morning?” he asked, prodding, like she  _ was  _ going to sleep the rest of the night. At this point, she guessed she had no other option. So she nodded, once, and sat in the chair next to Del’s bed. Shriv leveled a look at her, but there was no way she was leaving his room until the morning. With a shrug, he turned around, and left the room with a, “You know where to find me.” He knew better than to argue with Iden after she’d made up her mind.

 

….

 

Iden’s head pounded as she tugged on her boots. It hurt to breathe. 

Dawn was starting to break.

She stood, and grabbed her pack in one hand, and slung her blaster over her shoulder. She stepped lightly across the hall to Del’s room. Inside, he still slept, and the heart monitor kept beeping steadily. Breathe in, breathe out. She breathed to the beat of his heart, and kept her head. His red jacket was draped over the foot of his bed. She swallowed. Iden stepped closer, and dropped her back and blaster to the floor. She stood next to him, and slipped her fingers beneath his limp hand. She swallowed.

_ “Wake up,” _ she begged, once, barely out loud. The steady beeping carried on. Iden swallowed again. “You  _ have  _ to wake up.”

She blinked back tears, and leaned down to kiss him.  _ Please _ .

“I’ll be come back soon. And Zay will be with me,” she promised. Iden straightened up, pulled on Del’s jacket, slung her blaster and pack over her shoulders, and walked out of Del’s room without looking back. Shriv was leaning against the wall across from the doorway. He looked up when she came out.

“So you’re going.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’m going.”

Shriv pushed off the wall, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll take care of him,” he said, suddenly a little desperate. “I will. I won’t let him -” he swallowed.  _ Die _ . “- find Zay. Bring her home.” 

Iden nodded. She couldn’t speak. 

“I’ll find her.”

“You will.”

 

….

 

Dio whirred at her shoulder.

[What is Designation:Commander Iden Versio computing in her thought matrix]

Iden tilted her head.

“I’m thinking that Guavian Death Gang should invest in less obvious colors for their uniforms if they want to actually get away from people,” she said as she looked through the binocs. “What’d you think, Dio? Trail one of them, or kill them all?”

Dio’s servos whirred again as it looks over its information garnered from the scan.

[Designation:Dio computes that it would be logical not to draw attention to Designation:Commander Iden Versio]

Iden grunted. Her head throbbed. She got up from her position laying on the roof of the building to follow the gang member, motioning for Dio to collapse onto her back. The gang member clumsily made their way towards a small ship docked a couple hundred meters away, where two other members, one helmeted, one not, lounged on crates at the open ramp. After a few moments of conversing, too far away for Iden to catch, they all entered the ship. Iden counted down mentally -  _ four, three, two, one - _ then took off at a sprint towards the ramp as it hissed, and began to close. She closed the distance easily, and hopped lightly, ducking as she rolled down the ramp and into the small hold. Making sure not to scuff her feet, Iden dashed across the floor to duck behind two stacks of cracks that were parallel to the wall. 

Then, Iden settled in to wait. She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears. There was blood under her fingernails.Duh there’s blood everywhere. Rage simmered in her veins. She breathed. She could wait. She’d done worse before, worse conditions that hunched in a cramped, smelly gang ship. Iden wasn’t afraid of what she might have to go through to save Zay. She was more scared of what she’d be willing to do - almost. 

The thought of what might be happening to Zay made her breath catch - Zay was only three, still a toddler, why would they want her, what would they do with her - Iden cut off that train of thought. She couldn’t afford to panic - she couldn’t afford to lose her head. 

She couldn’t let the Guavians know she was here.

Iden settled her breathing - in through her nose, out through her mouth - and ran over the blueprints of her gun. 

Compared to what she’d done before, this was an easy mission.  _ An easy mission. Everything would be fine, it’ll be fine. _

 

….

 

The ship exited hyperspace with a jolt, and Iden couldn’t help wondering if this ship was up to code. Probably not, Iden thought a second later with a quirk of her lips. Gang ships were never to code. 

She strained her ears to hear the Guavians talking, but they spoke to low. A sudden series of beeps came over the comms loudly, and Iden winced as the noise aggravated her headache. Whatever was said must’ve been written, because then one of the Guavians called,

“Prepare to dock. Might want to make sure nothing goes tumbling in the hold, Kravc.”

Swallowing a curse, Iden readied herself as footsteps made their way across the ceiling of the hold -  _ Iden recalled seeing a ladder on the far end of the hold when she snuck aboard, the cockpit must be above _ \- and down the ladder. 

Kravc shuffled around, mumbling to himself, his back to Iden’s hiding place, and she took that as a sign to  _ move quickly _ . So she did. On silent feet, Iden bolted across the few feet between them, breaking his neck before he even knew what happened. His armor clattered against the ground, louder than she would have liked, as she pushed him behind her stack of crates.

“Kravc?” The gravelly voice made Iden freeze for a split second, before hiding again, this time to the right of the ladder. “Blasted  _ wermo _ , I’ll go see what’s he’s done this time.”

“ _ Chess ko _ , Draji,” the pilot warned.

“Since when do you care, nerf-herder,” Draji spat and slid down the ladder. Iden launched herself over a crate, and into Draji.

“ _ Fierfek! _ ” she shouted, angry as they both crashed to the floor. “Blasted stowa -” Iden shot the Guavian before she could say anything else, but the damage was done, and the pilot above deck was shouting in Huttese, Basic, and Twiliki respectively, too fast for Iden to catch. She climbed the ladder quickly, and had a blade to the pilot’s throat before he could open the comm channels.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep docking like everything is normal,” Iden breathed into his ear, and the pilot let out a very undignified whimper. “Understand?”

He nodded frantically, and continued docking, though with very shaky hands.

“And don’t forget,” Iden continued, “I know Huttese. Don’t try anything.”

They landed in a nondescript BFF-1 bulk freighter, but Iden knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving. Once the ship touched down, the Guavian turned around, hands up.

“Look, I landed, I didn’t say anything, you’ll let me g-”

Iden shot him in the head before he could finish speaking, and bent over the readouts. Nowhere did it say what the trio of Guavians was doing here. They were in the Unknown Regions, -7862.93, -3332.01, not far from Rakata Prime, not that that helped much. Iden released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She sucked her bottom lip in, and tasted copper. There was a split on her lip. She touched her temple, once, head still throbbing.

The banging on the ramp was offbeat to the throbbing of her head. Whoever was out there wanted in, and, Iden belatedly realized, had probably seen the flash of the blaster when she killed the pilot.

Blast.

Iden recharged her blaster, and dropped down the ladder, pushing a few crates in front of the ladder for meager cover, and settled in a crouch. With a hiss and a spark, the seam of the ramp began to glow and melt.

“Scan, please,” she said in hoarse whisper, and repressed a groan. Outside the door where ten beings. This certainly wouldn’t be hard, but it’d take longer than she’d hoped. Zay might be running out of time. Iden didn’t even know if Zay was on this ship. Everything was just conjecture at this point.

With a bang, the ramp door flew inward, followed by smoke and steam, and the beings she still couldn’t identify. Still, they were shooting at her, so it didn’t really matter. In a few short minutes, Iden had them dead and disposed of, and thankfully, the ship seemed rather undermanned. Apparently, they were either expecting more people, or they weren’t expecting many visitors. The hangar remained blessedly empty, but it still gave Iden a bad feeling. She continued slowly, blaster raised, clearing every room and corridor she came across - and dispatching five armed guards - until she got to the control room. It was locked, and from Dio’s scan, there were seven people inside.

Dio went to work on the lock, and Iden crouched behind a freestanding console. The minute ticked by slowly. A drop of sweat trickled down the back of Iden’s neck, and stung a scratch. Her thumb ached. It was swollen.

Dio beeped twice, and Iden laid down a stream of cover fire, dashing forward to lean against the door frame. A man burst out of the door, not expecting a punch to the ear which sent him reeling. A quick blast of fire to his chest had him dead.

The people in the control room were amateurish and undisciplined, and it was not hard to dispatch of all but one of them. The last one held a blaster clutched in his hands, and shot wildly, but Iden shot him twice, once in the shoulder, once in the knee, and kicked his blaster away.

“You can’t have the kids! They’ll kill me!” he blurted, and Iden nearly laughed at the idiot’s mistake, had she not be taken aback by the fact that there were kids, plural. 

Icy rage gripped her spine with cold hands, and a cold mask of fury took over her face. Iden stalked over to the man, stepping over the bodies with ease. She grabbed the man by the collar, and hauled him to his feet.

“Where are the children?” she snarled, but the man only blubbered. She jerked him, banging his head against the wall. “I asked you a question. Unless you want to die, I suggest you tell me  _ now  _ where they’re being held.”

The man gulped, then gulped again, and shook his head, a shivery motion. A trickle of blood dripped down her temple. The stitches at her scalp must have split. Iden bared her teeth, and dropped the man to the floor. She crouched, and pulled out her vibroblade, and held it against his nose.

“Where are they?” she asked, lightly, a sudden change from her angry questioning. She pressed the tip against his nose, and drew a drop of blood.

“Fine! Don’t hurt me!” he begged, and pointed a shaky finger at the console. “They’re in container #423.”

Iden hauled him to his feet again, and dragged him with her as she made her way back towards the cargo containers. The man never made it to his feet, given a mixture of how quickly Iden was moving, and the blast to his knee. She threw him forward, and sent him skidding across the dingy floor once they reached the container, and pointed at the keypad.

“Unlock it,” she growled, eyeing him throw the crosshairs of her blaster. The man shook his head, the same jerky motion again, and held up his hands, shouting,

“It ain’t locked! It ain’t! Just press the green button!”

Iden narrowed her eyes, and lifted her blaster an infinitesimal distance upward, and the man flinched.

“Are you lying?” she asked, deadly quiet, and he shook his head.

“I swear - I swear, I’m not, please don’t kill me!”

“If you are lying…” Iden trailed off threateningly, and turned to punch the button in question, readying her blaster as the door dropped open outwards with a bang.

Inside…

Inside were maybe twelve children, from ages two to five, the younger ones clustered together near the back of the container, and the older ones huddled together, looking frightened towards the front. They were all human, and most of them were asleep, but several of them jerked awake when the door opened.

_ Zay, Zay, where was she, she had to be in there - _

“Who are you?” one of the children asked in accented Basic, a little girl, maybe around five with dark, nearly black skin and ice blue eyes. She stood up, and hugged herself. “I haven’t seen you before. Are you going to hurt us?”

That little girl was incredibly brave, given how frightened she looked, how close to tears. The anger melted from Iden face, and she slung her blaster over her shoulder and knelt.

“I’m Iden,” she said softly, touching her sternum. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m here to rescue you. Are you hurt?”

_ Have you seen Zay, have you seen my baby, please. _

The girl shook her head.

“I’m hungry. So’s all the others.”

Iden crept closer, slowly, and tilted her head.

“Can you tell me your name? Is anyone else hurt?” she prodded gently, and the girl looked around, and frowned.

“My name’s Neera. And I dunno. Nobody’s bleeding. But the littlest ones are crying a lot when they are awake.”

Iden nodded sympathetically, and creeped just a little bit closer, a little bit further into the room.

“I bet. Hey, my baby girl was taken, too. I think she might be here. I’m really scared and worried about her. I’m here to take her, and the rest of you home.”

This time, it was Neera that came closer, just a step or two.

“What’s she look like?”

“Well, she was wearing a red sweater, and gray pants and yellow boots. Zay, her name’s Zay, she’s got brown eyes, and brown hair, and she’s three.”

Iden couldn’t trust a negative answer, if that’s what she was going to receive, not without looking herself. Zay had to be here. She had to.

Neera frowned again and hugged her arms around herself tighter.

“I can’t remember. I don’t know any of the little ones’ names. They wouldn’t tell me. I just know the big kids’.”

Iden’s chest tightened.

“Okay, Neera, I’m going to stand up, and I’m going get out a light, and my droid, okay? Don’t let it surprise you.”

Neera nodded, and twisted a little on her feet, side to side, as Iden dug out a glow rod.

“Dio,” she murmured, “lights, please.”

Dio detached from her back, making Neera jump, and lit up as she snapped her glow rod.  _ Much better. _

“Alright. Neera, why don’t you hold this?” she offered the green glow rod to the little girl, who took it after a moment’s hesitation. “I’m going to look for Zay, and then we’ll get all of you home.”

Neera nodded, and sat back down with her friends, and spoke quickly in a language Iden hadn’t heard before. Iden moved carefully among the children, heart seizing as she saw the scared, dirty little kids on the grimy floor, and felt anger squeezing her chest, making it hard to breathe. How could this have happened? How could all the children have been kidnapped, and she was the first to find them? Had no one else looked? The Guavian Death Gang couldn’t be working on the alone. They weren’t smart enough, or spread thick enough to do that. 

Iden grit her teeth as a wave of nausea hit her suddenly, and she wavered, trying not to lose her balance. Her head pounded loudly.  _ Zay had to be here _ .

Iden worked her way carefully through the children, still not finding Zay, and reached the wall opposite the door.

_ No. _

Iden’s breath caught painfully, and her vision blurred with tears. She leaned against the wall, and slid down it, sitting hard on the floor. It hurt to breath. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, and tried not to lose control, but she was a storm in a bottle, and the bottle was about to crack.

_ No, no, no, please. _

Dio burbled beside her suddenly, twisting to aim its photoreceptors at a dark corner previously unnoticed, but Iden took no notice of it. Zay wasn’t there. She still had to save the children that were there, though. She could break down later. 

Iden took a deep breath, and rubbed her eyes. She opened her mouth to call Dio back, except that a small, utterly familiar voice called,

“Dio!” in a happy, surprised tone. Iden froze, unable to comprehend. Then a giggle burst out, and Iden cracked her eyes open, and swallowed hard. She turned her head to look to her left, and there -

There, right there, in a corner Iden and Dio had missed, was Zay! Zay, in her favorite, muddy yellow boots, and frayed red sweater, laughing as Dio floated around her, waving its arms at her.

“Zay,” she breathed, then laughed once, a little hysterical, a lot relieved, “Zay!”

Her daughter looked up, and then tore forward, tackling Iden in a bear hug, knocking rather roughly into Iden’s already bruised ribs, but she didn’t care. Iden held Zay close, holding her probably a little too tightly, and laughed once, nothing much more than a relieved exhale. 

“Zay, baby, you’re okay,” Iden said, pulling back to push Zay’s messy hair out of her face. Zay nodded, and grinned.

“The big red bad guys were a little bit scary,” Zay said seriously, wrapping her fingers into the red jacket Iden wore. “But I knew you’d rescue me. So I was only this much scared,” she told Iden, holding up her thumb and pointer finger with about an inch of space between them. Iden laughed once again, and hugged Zay tightly in response.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner,” Iden whispered, and pressed her face to Zay’s shoulder. She blinked once, hard, to keep the tears back, but it didn’t quite work, and a tear still escape. 

Finally, Zay wiggled in her arms, and pulled back, looking around like she was looking for someone.

“Where’s Daddy?” she asked, then looked back at Iden. “Why’re you wearing his coat?”

Iden swallowed again, hard, and smiled a watery smile.

“Baby, Daddy got hurt in the big explosion when the red guys got you, so he couldn’t come. He’s still on the Corvus, with Uncle Shriv,” Iden explained, and hated the way Zay’s eyes got wide.

“Is he gonna be okay?” she asked in a whisper. Iden tucked Zay close, and shut her eyes.

“Yeah,” she promised. “He’ll be okay.”

 

….

 

_ “Who hired you?” _ Iden roared, grabbing the man from the control room by his collar and slamming him against the wall. The kids were safely secured in the Guavian gang ship she’d arrived on, with Dio keeping an eye on them, but business wasn’t quite finished.  _ “Well?” _

The man slammed his eyes and mouth shut, and wiggled his head in a weak approximation of a head shake.

“I can’t! They’ll kill me!”

Iden bit back the words  _ I’ll kill you, you idiot, if you don’t tell me  _ because at this point he was already sure he was going to die. 

“If you tell me who took them, I’ll get you somewhere safe. You aren’t Guavian Death Gang, are you?” she said evenly, instead. The man kept his eyes shut, but shook his head.

“The Guavians got no part in this. They were just there to pick up their pay.”

“Who’s paying them?”   
“I can’t -”

“WHO!”

“It’s the -”

The man quivered for a long moment, before going limp. Iden stepped back in shock. What…? There was liquid seeping from his ears… then blood leaked from his nose.

He was dead.

Iden cursed, and let go of him, letting him drop to the ground. She hadn’t noticed the cybernetic implants behind his ears. The computer was wiped clean, too. Whoever kidnapped the kids knew she was there. If they knew she was there and were able to wipe the computers, then they had to be in a ship not far off. But by now… well, by now, they were probably gone, and Iden was never going to find out who kidnapped her daughter. 

She cursed again, and slammed her fist into the wall, relishing the pain that kept her grounded. Breathe in, breathe out. 

No. She was going to find out. Just not now. 

Right now, she had to take her daughter home, and send the rest of the children back where they belonged.

 

….

 

Zay glued herself to Iden’s side the whole ride back. Iden would have thought that was sweet, if she didn’t know the real implications: that Zay had actually been terrified. After eating a protein bar, she had promptly fell asleep on Iden’s shoulder, and slept soundly the whole forty-seven minute trip back to Pollillus. 

Iden landed the ship a landing pad over from the Corvus, and contacted Shriv and a few crewmembers to help get the kids onto their ship. She spotted the Duros jogging across the duracreet pad, and lowered the ramp, maneuvering herself and Zay, who still slept, down the ladder to the hold where the rest of the kids were.

The floor was littered with protein bar wrappers, and sleepy children, and she stepped carefully across the floor to greet Shriv at the door. He looked infinitely relieved when he saw Zay tucked against Iden’s side, and he let out a long breath like he’d been holding it the whole time.

“How’s Del?” Iden asked immediately, and Shriv laid on hand on her shoulder, and the other on Zay’s back.

“He woke up half an hour ago. Thankfully you were already on the way back. He about jumped out of bed, but it’s not like he could have walked,” Shriv said, his sarcasm trying - and failing - to mask how worried he was. He rubbed Zay’s back. “Zay?”

“She’s okay. Shaken. Scared. I don’t know who kidnapped her or the other kids.”

“I thought it was the Guavian Death Gang?”

“Apparently not. They were only sent after Zay. I don’t know who hired them. The computers were wiped clean, it must have been done remotely, but I didn’t have time to comb the area.”

“It’s alright,” Shriv promised her. “We’ll find them eventually. But now, I think you’d better get yourself and Zay checked out so you can see Del.” He reached up and touched her temple. “You’re bleeding. In an ideal world, you’d still be in medical,” he told her, wrapping his hand loosely around her arm and leading her outside.

Iden laughed once, a little wet, and shifted Zay to her other hip. 

“Maybe. In an ideal world, we never would need to worry about my daughter getting kidnapped.”

“No,” Shriv agreed. “No, you wouldn’t.”

 

….

 

“Daddy!” Zay shrieked, wiggling out of Iden’s arms so she could run across the floor to clamber onto the bed Del laid on. Del grinned, and leaned forward, holding out his arms. “Mommy said you got hurt,” she said, wedging herself between his casted arm and his side, and peering up at him concernedly. 

Del smiled, and looked up at where Iden stood at the foot of his bed. He lifted a hand slightly, palm upturned in beckoning. Iden went to him, like she’d wanted to do since she got her, stumbled over her feet, and fell into him, kissing him once, twice, gripping his hand tightly.

“I was so worried,” she said, pressing her forehead to his. Del nudged their noses together.

“I know. So was I,” he said with a pointed look. Iden glanced away, sheepishly, touching the bacta patch on her temple.

“But Mommy’s alright!’ Zay burst out. “And you’re alright, Daddy! And Uncle Shriv is alright! And I’m alright! So now our whole family is good!”

Del laughed at that, and pulled Iden to sit next to him, and she laughed too, just an exhale, and reached across to wrap her hand around Zay’s. This was good - her family was back together, and everyone was safe and okay - but there was something still bothering her. 

Several minutes later, when Del was asleep again, and Zay dozing comfortably next to him, Iden slipped out of the room.

Shriv was leaning against the wall across from the door, and she remembered just barely a day ago, when Zay was gone, and Del was out. Her head pulse pounded in her ears to the beat of her fear.

“The kids are getting picked up,” he said. Iden nodded, and leaned next to him. “How are they?” He motioned to the room, where Del and Zay slept.

“Good. Better.”

“And you?”

Iden swallowed.

“Shriv, I need you to do something for me.” She spoke to the ceiling. Shriv shifted next to her.

“What is it?”

She swallowed again, and faced him. Shriv was already looking at her intently.

“Given our past, it’s almost not surprising Zay was taken. It’s not like we haven’t made enemies, on all sides. But next time we might not be so lucky - and you can’t say there won’t be a next time, because we both know that’s more than possible - and Zay -” Iden’s voice broke, and she glanced away. “I can’t leave Zay alone. Anything could happen to me or Del - to me  _ and  _ Del - and I need to know Zay will be taken care of.”

“Of course I’ll take care of her, Iden. You can’t doubt that.”

Iden nodded once, and crossed her arms. She uncrossed them.

“I promise. I’ll take care of her.”

_ “Thank you.” _

 

….

 

**14 Years Later…**

  
  


_ “... and I’ve got us a ship, but it’ll be a tight fit… Zay? Iden?” _

 

_ “It’s just me, Shriv. Mom’s gone.” _

 

_ “...Oh. I’m sorry.” _

  
  


The quiet noise of soft footsteps woke Shriv up. He knew it was Zay. She’d gotten up the last three nights in a row, and he hadn’t mentioned it because he hoped she’d talk to him on her own. But this was the fourth night, and she hadn’t said a word.

He got up, and squinted through the darkness. Zay sat on the floor in front of the window, knees pulled up to her chin, gazing out at the stars.

“Zay?” he called softly. She looked at him without saying a word. Tears streaked her face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, kneeling beside her. Zay opened her mouth, but all that came out was a sob. 

“I miss them so much,” Zay gasped, gripping her father’s jacket tightly in her fingers.

Shriv pulled her into a hug, something he’d been wanting to do ever since Del was killed, and then Iden, but she hadn’t seemed to want it. Now he realized he probably should have anyway. As much as he’d hoped Iden would be wrong, she wasn’t - of course she wasn’t, Iden never seemed to be wrong - and now he was in the situation he’d never wanted to be. But he was all Zay had left. There was no way he was going to leave her now. He was going to keep his promise.

“I’ve got you, Zay. I’ve got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So id toyed with the idea of zay getting kidnapped and iden going from business!iden to mama!iden in 0.002 seconds flat bc it was an interesting dynamic - what would iden do to get her daughter back? How far was she willing to go? Thankfully, she doesnt have ti go far in this, but if it came to it she would do anything, as i think we glimpse in resurrection


End file.
